Holy Song
by Hikaru Irving
Summary: [Oneshot][OVA] Trapped in the Balacruf Masoluem, laid seige by the Deisans from outside, Lloyd and Co. saw little hope in escaping alive. However, Colette, despite the strain it has on her, uses her angelic power to save everyone ...


Hikaru: Sort of novelization of the ToS OVA Episode 2, where Colette is using Holy Song. Since I watched the raw version of the video (and since I'm not Japanese fluent but I do understand a little bit), dialogue will be made on educated guesses.

--

The bonfires crackled, spitting forth ashes and sparks in the clearing before the Balacruf Mausoluem. A troop of Desians from the Palmacosta Human Ranch had the ancient palace surrounded, thusly trapping the Chosen One and her guardians.

The Cardinal leading the troop, Magnius, stuck his axe into the ground, cursing loudly. His Desian men ambled about the camp uncomforably, waiting anxiously for an order from their superior. It was proposed that they infiltrated the ruins and killed the Chosen's group, but the palace was filled with dungeons, monsters, and traps. It was safer to hold a seige until the Chosen's group surrendered.

"It's been a day already! Why don't they surrender?!"

The Desian grunt soldiers could provide no sound answer. They were merely pawns; without a leader, without orders, they were utterly nothing.

Magnius paced around his campsite, looking scathingly at the ancient palace, as if it had done something very insulting. Magnius must wait. The great tigers and leopards spent much time stalking and trapping their prey before closing in on the kill, and even then they must have extreme patience, lest the prey escape.

Magnius could not calm himself, but he knew, he must wait.

--

Evening had fallen, and still the Desians held seige outside the walls of the ancient fortress. Lloyd looked sideways out the window, back flat against the wall, and he gave a disgusted noise at the sight of the troop waiting to slaughter them. And it wasn't just Colette ... no, the Chosen One that had compelled them here. Lloyd was a wanted criminal in their eyes, he held an Exsphere that they desperately wanted to reclaim.

"Dammit!" He murmured, a ghost of a voice in the air. He looked to Professor Sage, voice urgent. "Professor, isn't there any way out of this?"

Raine shook her head, no. "An organized troop holding a seige on us. While we are protected as long as we remain in this fortress, don't forget we cannot go outside. Our food and water supply is limited as well. We can't escape so long they remain on seige; we can't fight so many."

Lloyd cursed again, slamming his fist on the stone wall. "Dammit! How can we continue the world regeneration if we're holed up here?! And we can't die yet! We have to succeed!"

"Lloyd ... " Genis looked at his friend forlornly, blue eyes dimmed. He didn't know what to say of comfort.

After all, it was an impossible predicament.

-

On the roof, of the fort, overlooking the Desians below them, Colette stood beside Kratos. Colette at first thought them doomed as well, but Kratos had a plan.

"I understand that using angelic power strains you," he said, "but unless you use it, we cannot escape here, and we will end up dead."

Colette nodded. She had to use it, to save her friends, to save herself. As long as they lived, so did hope for world regeneration, and freedom at last from the tyranny of the Desians ... she clasped her hands together, concentrating on her Cruxis Crystal. Her angel wings of pure mana flowered from her back, shining, glowing. Their color was radiant in the nighttime.

Her tutors in the Church of Martel had Colette study angelic magic, even if she could not actually use it until she earned her Cruxis Crystal and blessings from the Oracle, her guardian angel.

Angels were primarily servants and messengers of the Goddess Martel. Angel's voice and song had a variety of purposes and strengths.

Colette chose to sing a hymn that would be harmful for Desians to hear from an angelic voice. It would be sung in angel language, of course, but that should make it all the more effective.

"Thy servant asketh for thy blessing. Honor us with the splendor of thy song." Colette whispered, and she felt the power grow within her.

--

"This mission would've been so much easier if that bastard Kvar had sent troops!" Magnius raged, and his soldiers distanced themselves from him, scared their commander would use them as an outlet for his frustration.

Magnius opened his mouth to say something more, but whatever it would have been died unborn in his throat. His pointed half-elf ears perked, picking up a distant sound. He and the other Desians looked for the source of the noise, finding nothing. Then, from the velvety nighttime sky studded with glittering stars beside the full moon, fell a single, silvery white feather.

More feathers floated gently from the sky in the wake of the first feather, disappearing on the ground in a flash of mana. Something so holy and heavenly clearly could not exist on the mortal earth ...

"Wh-what the hell is this?!" Magnius demanded, whirling around at the sight of the feather-rain.

"I-I can hear something!" One Desian panicked.

Magnius could hear it, too. It sounded like a voice ... like a hymn. Finally, he put two and two together. It was the Chosen One.

--

Lloyd leaned out the window when he heard the heavenly voice first. He saw, falling like snowflakes, fragile, holy, and pure, silvery white angel feathers. His eyes widened when he realized what was happening.

"Dammit it all!" He reeled away from the window, dashing down the hallway. "Colette can't use that! It'll drain her strength!"

"Lloyd!" Genis called, but Lloyd was already gone, running through the halls to find the Chosen.

-

She sang the hymn, a hymn about the angels conquering those who opposed them and the Goddess Martel--the song of victory against the Desians. She saw them weakening at the hymn, knowing her angelic song must be working. Hands still clasped in prayer, Colette continued to sing, finding her voice and spirit to sing at the thought of those most important to her ... and how they'll be happy once she was reborn as an angel, and the world regenerated.

Her voice floated on the air, reaching all ears, radiating into the night like a guiding star.

_One more angel, one more savior joining the great Goddess in the heavens of Derris-Kharlan_

_Rejoice, people of Sylvarant, the tyranny of the Desians will cease_

_As you live your lives, tending your fields, homes, families_

_Remember the successful Chosen who brought you peace_

_And the Chosen who died for the cause, martyrs every one_

_Remember their victory over the Desians, the Fallen gone_

_Rejoice, and pursue your happiness_

"Colette!"

Lloyd's call almost startled Colette to the point of her stopping her angelic hymn, but she kept singing, to weaken the Desians, so they may be able to escape their clutches.

"Lloyd, wait!" Professor Raine and Genis rushed onto the roof after Lloyd.

Lloyd halted dead in his tracks, staring at Colette's back, and her ethereal wings.

"No, Colette--" A hand clapped on his shoulder. Lloyd looked up at Kratos, surprised. Lloyd blinked. "Do something!" He demanded.

"Do not interrupt the Chosen. Her song will help us." Kratos replied coldly.

"She'll collapse! You know she isn't--" Lloyd cringed; Kratos's grip on his shoulder tightened. The teenager tried to protest once more, but Kratos's grip merely tightened to the point of pain and replied, "The Chosen chose this herself. If she dies here, so will the Regeneration."

Lloyd had nothing to say, knowing this to be true. He instead stared defiantly at Kratos as he continued.

"The Chosen makes the decisions on this journey. All we can do is protect her along the way."

As Kratos finished his sentence, Colette's angelic voice faded, and so did her wings. The last of the angel feathers touched upon the ground before disappearing in a spark of light.

Colette turned around, and with horror Lloyd saw the after effects of her strain in her eyes--her radiant blue eyes were dimmed, clouded with excessive mana expenditure.

It wasn't until a moment past when Lloyd realized that Colette was looking past him, not at him. He turned around to see a woman of moderately tall height, dressed in strange clothing, crowned with black hair, a small fox-like creature perched on her shoulder.

Lloyd wanted to ask what the woman was doing in a place like the ancient fortress, but she spoke before he could.

"I know a way out. Follow me."

--

Hikaru: I loved this scene. The hymn doesn't rhyme because technically it's sung in angelic language, which sounds a helluva lot different from Japanese. Colette's just thinking about the translation of the song. Anyway, I hope you all like it!


End file.
